Jimmy Howard as George Armstrong custer

[yave1964]

  When Custer stood upon that lonely Montana hill in 1876 facing insurmountable odds and knowing that his fate was sealed as they were coming from all directions, he must have felt the same way as Jimmy Howard last night. Minus, of course, the arrows and actual bullets and Indians, but a lot more pucks.

 

  7-3 against Carolina, when a team loses by 4 it is almost impossible to say that the game was not even that close but it is the truth, 7-3 was actually 8-3 as the Wings won a challenge and had a goal reversed (about the only thing we won last night).

 

  Carolina came in waves, at times it appeared the Canes were on a two man advantage power play for much of the night, the forwards didn't back check, Carolina committed all three forwards and one defenseman all night to charge hard at the net. Nemeth is big and strong but sloooooow. Hicketts is a little fireplug but sloooow and makes dreadful decisions in his own end while attempting to clear, reminding me of Brendan Smith. Green still can help run a power play but is slowing. Hronek has offensive ability but at times looks lost in the back end. Bowey nightly lets you know why the Capitals let him go. Trevor Daley simply cannot play anymore. 

 

  So with this less than stellar grouping they need the forwards to come tot heir aid but instead for the most part the forwards hang around near the blueline hoping to receive a errant pass from the Canes or a desperate swipe from one of the Wings defenders from in front of the net to start a break out. The defense, such as it is, receives little if any help from the forwards. Oh when Howard or Bernier would glove a puck Abdelkader would grab a Cane player by the jersey and shake them menacingly but it was far too little and accomplished nothing. He was slow and always late to the party and little if any actual help.

 

  Flash forward to the Islanders against the Lightning. NYI have now won eight in a row, looking the roster over it is impossible to see why, a couple of career dissapointments sharing the crease, a no name defense, Barzal and a bunch of hard working but not so talented forwards. And they were playing the most talented team in the world. Whenever I couldn't watch the Wings anymore I would flip to the Isles/Tampa game.

 

  The Isles have both defenseman box the incoming forwards out towards the wall, the center comes in front to clear bodies or pucks fired at the goal, the two wingers, instead of hanging out at the blueline move in to the top of the dot and are active in chasing pucks and men. In other words, they play five man defense frustrating teams all night with their style.

 

  And then on offense, the Isles know they are outmanned and cannot afford to run and gun so they send the two wingers inside the dots towards the net, the center is the quarterback from whom al pucks flow, the two defenseman hang around near the blueline waiting on passes/clearing attempts and when the puck gets ont heir stick they fire it on net. This is a smart well disciplined team that plays boring, stifling constricting hockey but they WIN. They have lemons, and well, they make lemonade out of them. We have chickens and make chicken crap.

 

 This cannot go on, Howard left early last night probably to swallow a few Excedrin and have a beer or two or three,  if I were Yzerman instead of watching game tape I would make the team watch the Islanders game tape instead. Hell, maybe he should make Blash watch it. On a continuous loop.

[SpikeDDS]

@yave1964

 

Becoming unwatchable now.

 

This was predictable. A defense that acts more like a sieve is going to negate any kind of upstart offense.

 

Is there a last name of a prospect that could possibly give us as pithy a saying as “Lose for Hughes!”?

[yave1964]

@SpikeDDS

 

Yeah, WOW they dont look like the same team that was responsible and checking and winning 3 of their first 4. Losing is one thing, losing by 3 or 4 goals every night is just cringeworthy.

 

  Seider looks great in Grand Rapids, he seems to rapidly be gaining confidence (2 assists tonight, one on a 80 foot pass to Chris Terry setting him up for a breakaway. With Rasmussen out hurt I have been watching more of Seider to get a feel of him and he truly looks to be more of a complete package than anyone on our current roster. That said, I dont believe he should be rushed up to learn bad habits from the F-Troop we have playing right now with the big club. 

[SpikeDDS]

@yave1964

 

I agree with you 1000%! Moritz Seider should NOT be brought up one game before he is ready. They must resist the temptation to improve ticket sales.

 

It will very likely cost Jeff Blashill his job, because they could potentially see him as Blashill’s last hope. Again, not one game earlier to save Blashill either.
 

Seider is called up when he is ready and not one game before that.

[yave1964]

2 hours ago, SpikeDDS said:

@yave1964

 

I agree with you 1000%! Moritz Seider should NOT be brought up one game before he is ready. They must resist the temptation to improve ticket sales.

 

It will very likely cost Jeff Blashill his job, because they could potentially see him as Blashill’s last hope. Again, not one game earlier to save Blashill either.
 

Seider is called up when he is ready and not one game before that.

I could not agree more. 

 

  Yesterday against the Monsters he got caught pinching in on the power play and the result was a couple of Cleveland Monsters breakaways that went for short handed goals, it is a learning curve, he will get there, like I said he is probably already our most well rounded blueliner in the organization but it isn't like calling him up puts us over the top. a year of learning at Grand Rapids wont hurt.

 

 Speaking of the Griffins, Rasmussen who was out for 4 games with a LBI is back and looked rusty yesterday, Zadina is starting to heat up a bit. Veleno looks lost a lot but has a couple of goals lately. I think all will be with the big club by March, all will be there to stay but all have work to do on their game first.

[SpikeDDS]

@yave1964

 

My brother just flew down from Detroit last evening. Complaining about AA's lack of production.

 

My response: If AA even scored 1 goal every single game, how many of the 12 games lost out of 13 would we have won?

 

His response: silent nodding in resigned agreement.

 

More offense may sound good, and it WILL be important, but it's not going to make much difference when you're giving up 4 goals every second period of every game!

 

Seider will be one of the key cogs for turning things around, but bringing him up before he is ready would be as beneficial as naming Larkin captain before he is ready or making him captain THIS team THIS season. Foolishness. Unnecessary.

 

Fans just need to resign themselves to a few years of bottom-dwelling. Or else they can try to further the same mistakes we made in desperately trying to extend the playoff streak at the cost of our near future. Trying to salvage this season would be no different than that EXCEPT that the VERY BEST PIPE DREAM that we could hope for is that they could possibly squeak into the playoffs only to make a quick first-round exit. Sound familiar?

 

BTW, Interesting that Yzerman is making moves. De la Rose for Fabbri. I like that he is trying to rearrange the deck chairs on this Titanic of a season.

 

I don't mind the move. Only time will tell if this pays off, but Steve has shown that he has an eye for talent.

 

The question is: With Blashill's track record, is HE the coach that can make a player like Fabbri rise to the level of potential that he was thought to have? Tough to say yes to that question at this point.

Edited November 7, 2019 by SpikeDDS

[yave1964]

Fabbri, I really liked him a few years ago, not afraid to crash the net played hard, gave it all every night. Then he blew out his knee not once but twice, lost his speed and his confidence, doenst play with the same style anymore. A change of scenery for a former first rounder kind of like Perlini. De Larose never did much, will be quickly forgotten. I like the idea of collecting kids in their early twenties who were former first rounders for essentially nothing. Low risk, decent reward guys if you will.